McKinnon faces extradition to US, rules High Court

Hacker loses his appeal

UPDATED: Gary McKinnon will be extradited to the US, ruled the British High Court this week, with the hacker failing in his long-running appeal to be tried in the UK instead.

McKinnon, who has never denied hacking into Pentagon and military computers but insists that he was merely looking for information on UFOs, has been told by the Home Secretary that he cannot be charged in the UK of the crime and must be extradited.

Aspergers

Aspergers Syndrome sufferer McKinnon could face up to 70 years in prison if convicted of accessing 97 computers in the US - what prosecutors have called "the biggest military computer hack of all time".

His lawyers believe that McKinnon could be a suicide risk because of his illness, and insist that their client was not acting maliciously when he accessed the computers.